There’s a reason Helichrysum has earned names like “everlasting,” “strawflower,” and “golden immortelle.” Across Africa, Eurasia, Madagascar, and even parts of Australia, this remarkable genus has adapted into an astonishing range of forms – from compact alpine cushions on windswept peaks to sprawling coastal pioneers on dunes, and tall, aromatic shrubs rising through savanna grassland. Many species seem almost sculpted for harshness: felted leaves that reflect heat, resinous scent glands that reduce water loss, and papery bracts that hold their colour long after flowering.

In southern Africa especially, Helichrysum becomes a signature of wild landscapes. Some species carpet high Drakensberg slopes like silver mats; others form tidy, upright tufts in montane grassland; and some are so specialised that they cling to cliff faces or root into shallow pockets of stony soil. The flowers, often arranged in tight button-clusters or open daisy-like heads, glow in tones of yellow, cream, white, pink, copper, red, and rose – and in many species the “petals” are actually brilliantly coloured bracts that preserve their beauty even when dried.

Beyond their ornamental appeal, Helichrysum carries deep cultural importance. Many species are traditionally used for fragrance, medicinal preparations, ceremonial burning, and as protective plants. For modern growers, they offer the irresistible combination of wild provenance, drought resilience, and striking textures – a true collector’s genus, equally suited to naturalistic gardens, rockeries, alpine troughs and habitat restoration planting.

Helichrysum spodiophyllum

For rock-garden collectors, Helichrysum spodiophyllum is pure satisfaction: a mat-forming species that looks like it was designed to live on stone, creeping and rooting into crevices and then lifting neat clusters of everlasting heads above ash-grey foliage. It’s ideal for alpine troughs, dry-stone walls, and any planting where you want a living tapestry that hugs the substrate.

It forms large, woody mats with prostrate, rooting branches and tufted, linear, grass-like leaves that stay silky-silver. The heads gather into tight, compact clusters; the bracts are translucent with outer bracts tipped brown while inner bracts turn bright yellow, creating a subtle two-tone effect even before the flowers open fully. Flowering is reported mainly December to February in the north but can extend as late as May in the Cape.

Indigenous to South Africa, in the wild it sprawls over rock outcrops and rock sheets in grassland, recorded from Mpumalanga (Lydenburg), Eswatini (Mbabane district), KwaZulu-Natal localities, and with a disjunction into the Eastern Cape (east of the Amatola Mountains). Give it sun, sharp mineral drainage, and the chance to root into cracks, and it rewards growers with a tough, sculptural groundcover that handles exposure far better than its delicate look suggests.